Netflix’s true crime catalog has type of grow to be that Scandinavian seed ark, however for preserving descriptions of human distress as a substitute of pine nuts. Exhibit A: American Nightmare.
The documentary, launched on the streaming service in January 2024, tells the story of Aaron and Denise, a folks-next-door younger couple filled with pep and goals who went by a spectacularly unhealthy couple of years. It began in 2015, when the pair reported being the victims of a house invasion. Denise was kidnapped, Aaron was instructed to pay an $8,500 ransom, and in some way, none of that was the worst half.
The authorities have been suspicious, first that Aaron had set the entire thing up, then that Denise might need framed her husband for consideration. The entire thing form of sounded just like the plot of Gone Lady. Weirdly, this element makes American Nightmare suspiciously much like a Whitest Children sketch from about 15 years in the past. Postmodernity is a maze.`
Even after Denise returned dwelling, the police framed her kidnapping as a scheme that both she or each she and Aaron had ripped off from a David Fincher film. Between the publicity, the allegations of deeply troubling habits, and what was presumably a mile-long line of streaming service executives at their door attempting to land their life rights, the duo was undoubtedly underneath a ton of stress. What was the top consequence?
Did Aaron and Denise find yourself okay – are they nonetheless collectively?
Not each Netflix documentary will get a contented ending – virtually not one of the tigers from the Joe Unique sequence bought adopted by loving households with fenced yards for them to play in.
However American Nightmare isn’t each Netflix documentary. The excellent news doesn’t cease at the truth that no person concerned within the story was mendacity for clout, pity, or $8,500. In a contented flip of occasions, Denise and Aaron didn’t simply keep collectively, they bought married in 2018, the identical 12 months that they sued town of Vallejo for defamation, pocketing $2.5 million within the course of – considerably lower than what Gone Lady made on the field workplace, however that’s not unusual with remakes.
And the excellent news doesn’t finish there both. Aaron and Denise welcomed a pair of kiddos into the world, together with a daughter named Olivia, talked about in American Nightmare. Additionally, the person liable for Denise’s kidnapping was discovered, tried, and convicted. As codas to true crime tales go, that’s about pretty much as good as most individuals ever get.
American Nightmare is at the moment obtainable to stream on Netflix.